K-Pop Singer G-Dragon, Missy Elliott to Collaborate

K-Pop and US rap will collide on G-Dragon’s next solo album.

June 26, 2013

According to a blog entry posted yesterday by YG Entertainment head Yang Hyun Suk, G-Dragon, a member of the K-Pop boy band Big Bang, will bring North American sounds to his next solo album with help from U.S. rapper Missy Elliott.

“Rather than having a male rapper, YG wanted a female rapper to be featured,” Yang revealed. “The answer was so simple and everyone reached a consensus. The person is Missy Elliott.”

Yang went on to explain that YG spent the past several months funneling a healthy dose of G-Dragon’s music to the renowned rapper, whose hits include “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”, “Hot Boyz”, “Work It”, and “Get Ur Freak On”.

Elliott is known to rap in a style that has been mistaken as being gibberish, which is, in fact, her words played backward. This is most notably present in the song “Work It”, which is also famed for popularizing the slang term “badonkadonk”.

In order to win her over to the project, “YG spent a lot of effort the last months personally giving Missy Elliott G-Dragon’s music,” Yang added. “She was interested in his music and his creativity, and decided to collaborate by featuring in his album.”

While G-Dragon will pen the lyrics and compose the tracks for the record – there will be ten – Elliott plays a significant role in at least one of them. The song in question, “Teddy”, which will apparently have Korean folk elements, including a sampling of the song “Nilliliya”, blended with a hip hop hook.

Elliott, who also sings, acts and produces records, will not be alone. Fellow American DJ Diplo will also contribute to the effort, which is slated for release on August 18, his 25th birthday.

G-Dragon’s first album, which was released four years earlier to the day, has generated enough hype to secure him a successful world tour. He wraps the tour in Singapore on June 29-30, where he will be accompanied by a guest performance from label mate 2NE1. Last year he also released the EP, “One of a Kind”, which won him Best Male Solo Artist at the Mnet Asian Music Awards, as well as Record of the Year at the Seoul Music Awards.

The prospect of a K-Pop album with elements of Korean folk music, hip hop and “badonkadonk”-infused gibberish is hard to pass up. This should be interesting.